阿摩司书 6:4

Chinese Union (Simplified)

你 们 躺 卧 在 象 牙 床 上 ， 舒 身 在 榻 上 ， 吃 群 中 的 羊 羔 ， 棚 里 的 牛 犊 ；

Parallel Translations

Chinese NCV (Simplified)
你們臥在象牙床上，躺在榻上；你們吃羊群中的羊羔，和牛棚裡的牛犢。

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

lie: Isaiah 5:11, Isaiah 5:12, Isaiah 22:13, Luke 16:19, Romans 13:13, Romans 13:14, James 5:5

beds: Either sofas to recline on at table, or beds to sleep on; which among the ancients, were ornamented with ivory inlaid.

stretch themselves upon their couches: or, abound with superfluities, 1 Samuel 25:36-38, Psalms 73:7, Luke 12:19, Luke 12:20

Reciprocal: Genesis 18:7 - General 1 Kings 10:18 - ivory 1 Kings 22:39 - the ivory house 2 Kings 9:34 - he did eat Esther 1:6 - the beds Esther 5:14 - go thou in Job 21:12 - General Jeremiah 16:8 - General Jeremiah 46:21 - fatted bullocks Lamentations 5:15 - our dance Ezekiel 23:41 - stately Ezekiel 26:13 - General Daniel 6:18 - and passed Amos 2:8 - by Amos 8:10 - I will turn

Gill's Notes on the Bible

That lie upon beds of ivory,.... That were made of it, or inlaid with it, or covered with it, as the Targum; nor was it improbable that these were made wholly of ivory, for such beds we read of: Timaeus says r, the Agrigentines had beds entirely made of ivory; and Horace s also speaks of such beds: and if any credit can be given to the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem on Genesis 50:1. Joseph made his father Jacob to lie on a bed of ivory. Indeed, the Latin interpreters of these Targums render it a cedar bed; but Buxtorf t conjectures that ivory is meant by the word used; and so Bochart u translates it; on these they lay either for sleep and rest, or to eat their meals;

and stretch themselves upon their couches; for the same purposes, living in great splendour, and indulging themselves in ease and sloth; as it was the custom of the eastern countries, and is of the Arabs now; that they make little or no use of chairs, but either sitting cross legged, or lying at length, have couches to lie on at their meals; and when they indulge to ease, they cover or spread their floors with carpets, which for the most part are of the richest materials. Along the sides of the wall or floor, a range of narrow beds or mattresses is often placed upon these carpets; and, for their further ease and convenience, several velvet or damask bolsters are placed upon these, or mattresses w, to lean upon, and take their ease; see

Ezekiel 13:18; and thus, and in some such like manner, did the principal men of the people of Israel indulge themselves. Some render it, "abound with superfluities"; the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, "are lascivious"; and the Arabic version, "burn in lust"; and so some of the Jewish writers interpret it of their committing adulteries, and all uncleanness, on their beds and couches;

and eat the lambs out of the flock; pick the best and fattest of them for their use: so the Targum,

"eat the fat of the sheep:''

and the calves out of the midst of the stall; where they are put, and kept to be fattened; from thence they took what they liked best, and perhaps not out of theft own flocks and stalls, but out of others, and with which they pampered themselves to excess.

r Apud Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 12. c. 29. s "----Rubro ubi cocco Tincta super lectos cauderet vestis eburnos". Horat. Serm. l. 2. Satyr. 6. v. 102. t Lexic. Talmud. col. 2475. u Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 24. col. 252. w See Shaw's Travels, p. 209. Ed. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

That lie upon beds (that is, sofas) of ivory - that is, probably inlaid with ivory. The word might, in itself, express either the bed, in which they slept by night, or the divan, on which the Easterns lay at their meals; “and stretch themselves,” literally, “are poured” out , stretching their listless length, dissolved, unnerved, in luxury and sloth, “upon their couches,” perhaps under an awning: “and eat the lambs,” probably “fatted lambs (as in Deuteronomy 32:14; Psa 37:20; 1 Samuel 15:9; Jeremiah 51:40), out of the flock,” chosen, selected out of it as the best, and “calves out of the midst of the stall;” that is, the place where they were tied up (as the word means) to be fatted. They were stall-fed, as we say, and these people had the best chosen for them.

: “He shews how they ‘draw nigh the seat of violence.’ They lay on beds or couches of ivory, and expended thereon the money wherewith their poor brethren were to be fed. Go now, I say not into the houses of nobles, but into any house of any rich man, see the gilded and worked couches, curtains woven of silk and gold, and walls covered with gold, while the poor of Christ are naked, shivering, shriveled with hunger. Yet stranger is it, that while this is everywhere, scarce anywhere is there who now blames it. Now I say, for there were formerly. ‘Ye array,’ Ambrose says , ‘walls with gold, men ye bare. The naked cries before your door and you neglect him; and are careful with what marbles you clothe your pavement. The poor seeketh money, and hath it not; man asketh for bread, and thy horse champeth gold. Thou delightest in costly ornaments, while others have not meal. What judgment thou heapest on thyself, thou man of wealth! Miserable, who hast power to keep so many souls from death, and hast not the will! The jewel of thy ring could maintain in life a whole population.’ If such things are not to be blamed now, then neither were they formerly.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Amos 6:4. That lie upon beds of ivory — The word הוי hoi, wo, is understood at the beginning of each of the first, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth verses. The beds mentioned here may be either sofas to recline on at table, or beds to sleep on; and these among the ancients were ornamented with ivory inlaid. They were called lectos eburatos by Plautus, lectos eburnos by Horace, "ivory beds." Probably those ornamented with shells, or mother-of-pearl, may be intended. Several works of this kind may be still seen in Palestine and other places. I have before me a cross brought from Jerusalem, incrusted all over with mother-of-pearl, and various figures chased on it.

There must have been a great deal of luxury and effeminacy among the Israelites at this time; and, consequently, abundance of riches. This was in the time of Jeroboam the second, when the kingdom had enjoyed a long peace. The description in the fourth, fifth, and sixth verses, is that of an Asiatic court even in the present day.